How To Address Text Complexity And Help Students Understand What They

When was the last time you had to read something you couldn’t understand? Stumped? That’s probably because you’re an excellent reader. I’m an excellent reader, too, so I asked my sister if I could review an article she was writing in support of her doctoral dissertation. “Maybe I can give you some constructive feedback?” I said, confident that my ELA teaching experience would pay off. Text complexity isn’t something I often worry about.

Two paragraphs in, and I was lost. So I buckled down and reread a few key sentences: “Over the past 50 years, a picture has been developing of the brain’s unique waste removal system. […] Here, we review the relevant literature with a focus on transport processes, especially the potential role of diffusion and advective flows. […] Communication relies on molecular transport, where transport rates determine the range-of-action for neurotransmitters and transport effects cell-to-cell communication (Ray and Heys, 2019).” Nope. Still clueless.

Time to admit my own hubris. I just don’t have the background knowledge or the discipline-specific vocabulary in chemical engineering I need to understand an article titled, “Fluid flow and mass transport in brain tissue.” Humbled as I was after attempting to read my sister’s article, it dawned on me that I have asked students to do a similar kind of reading, and I have expected better results. The problem isn’t that students shouldn’t be reading complex, grade-level texts. In fact, they should be reading more of them, since we know students’ ability to comprehend complex texts is a key determiner of their college and career readiness. But learning from complex texts requires what literacy expert Tim Shanahan calls “accommodative and supportive instruction.” In essence, if we want students to grapple with complex texts, we need to plan for their success.

By cultivating metacognitive reading habits, you can help students remain focused as they persist through challenging material. We’ve all had the experience. We’re reading along and suddenly realize that although our eyes are scanning the words on the page, nothing is actually registering. Minutes pass before we take our bearings and see that we’ve lost the plot entirely—pun intended. In classrooms, students tend to experience this drift in attention while reading texts that are challenging or highly technical—the sorts of jargon-rich passages middle schoolers and high schoolers might encounter in science, math, or... In many ways, the mind-wandering itself is unavoidable: Not everything we put in front of students will captivate them.

In a 2024 study of “mindless reading,” researchers from the University of Würzburg tracked the reading speed and attention of undergrads poring over a complex science text. At multiple points during the exercise, prompts appeared asking students “Was your mind wandering when you read the last sentence?” Students confirmed multiple instances of loss of attention. Researchers found that changes in reading speed, lingering on the same passage for long periods, and skipping words were signals that students were struggling to remain focused or to understand the material, and also... These practical supports can go a long way towards making students successful with challenging texts. Blast from the Past: This entry first appeared September 6, 2016, was reissued June 27, 2020, and now again in January 2025. I’ve updated it a bit — based on my new book (which is currently in production and should be out soon).

Avoiding teaching students with grade-level texts, holds most kids back rather than propelling them forward. This blog entry provides practical advice as to how to teach successfully with such books. My district is currently “grappling” with the idea of asking students to read complex text if they are significantly below the grade level. As an example, within one fourth grade class, a teacher identified that more than half her class is 1-2 grade levels below the expectation for reading (using multiple measures). Her response is to change the level of the text and try to move the students forward. The common theme in our schools is that growth is what matters, not proficiency.

However, our new reading series expects students to perform in more complex texts. Even the “approaching” level books are above what we typically would ask struggling students to read. Could you give some specific examples of how to scaffold, when students are unable to read half the words on a page? First, if students are reading like first graders — that is, they are struggling with decoding then you should be trying to teach them out of easier books, with lots of word repetition and... The complex text prescription is not for them. You indicate that they can’t read half the words on the page which sounds a lot lower than one or two grade levels off.

If they are that low, you will need to do a lot more than just placing them in much easier books. They also should be receiving substantial amounts of phonics and fluency training (30 minutes per day of each), and some may even need more of those in Tier 2 interventions. However, if these fourth graders are reading at a second or third grade level, then, place them in the grade-level texts. Doing that not only means that they’ll be taught what your state requires, but you’ll be exposing them to content or ideas more appropriate to their maturity, intellectual functioning, and interests. What’s complex to one student may be relatively accessible to others. Some students struggle to read texts at grade level.

Others may find scientific language challenging. All students might find poetry or Shakespeare difficult until they learn strategies on how to approach figurative language. Whatever the challenge a particular text poses, I have found that there are four key practices I rely on when introducing any text that’s more complex than what students can read independently. Select a lesson structure that makes intentional scaffolding possible. I rely on lesson types such as read aloud, close reading, and shared reading when introducing a text that I know students will find challenging. While all three lesson structures provide opportunities to support students, I turn to each at different times.

I tend to use read-aloud lessons to explicitly model strategies and engage students in active processing of texts. I find that shared-reading lessons are best when I want to support accurate word reading, fluency, and comprehension. Although I typically use shared-reading lessons – which include repeated, choral, and echo reading – with younger students, there may be occasions, such as the introduction of new poetic forms, when shared reading will... I turn to close-reading lessons when I want to help more experienced readers do deeper analytic work such as looking at figurative language, symbolism, mood, and tone. Plan the various supports you will offer and be ready to pivot. With any lesson structure you choose, you’ll plan where you will pause to offer a variety of supports.

I find that read-aloud offers lots of opportunity for me to explicitly model strategies, quickly define key vocabulary, and engage students in conversation. In fact, I often follow-up read-aloud lessons with conversation lessons. In close reading, I typically choose a shorter text and pause more frequently. I often direct students to re-read, read with a partner, and I might even read aloud certain key sections of the text. With shared reading, I’m typically working on fluency and foundational skills. I listen for opportunities to decode, smooth out mumbled reading, or a quick group pause and think.

Provide plenty of opportunity for students to engage, and check for understanding. When I’m teaching any lesson, I always provide plenty of opportunity for students to be active, and I get feedback from them about what they are learning as I teach. I might ask for simple thumbs up or down to indicate understanding. I may prompt students to jot a quick answer on a white board or reflect more deeply in their reader’s journals. I might lean in to listen to different pairs of students in a turn and talk to determine if all or several students have missed a key point. Or I might interpret students’ body language indicating puzzlement or boredom.

No matter what lesson structure I am using I am constantly gauging students’ level of engagement and understanding and adjusting my instruction accordingly. Build conceptually coherent text sets. Research shows that grouping different types of texts that explore a similar topic or are related conceptually helps students build and better retain knowledge, acquire new vocabulary, and make connections. So, I’m always looking for new texts that connect to others I already love to teach with. Text sets should include a variety of text types, a range of complexity, and different formats. For instance, a conceptually coherent text set about the life cycles of trees might include an article from a science magazine, a video from a nature channel, a picture book about forests, an audio...

With this text set, I might use shared reading for the poetry, close reading for the science article, and read aloud for the picture book. Correspondence to: Delinda van Garderen, University of Missouri, 303 Townsend Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, vangarderend@missouri.edu, 573-884-7075 Meeting the demands of the Next Generation Science Standards requires that students engage in complex science texts. However, for many students, including students with disabilities, this can be a challenging activity. Many students lack the necessary skills and background knowledge to successfully engage with complex science texts. In this article we discuss how to use instructional scaffolds to address gaps and challenges in reading as a way to engage all learners in complex science text.

National and state standards state that all learners should use informational texts (e.g., Next Generations Science Standards [NGSS]; CCSS-ELA-Reading in Science and Technical Subjects [RST]). Further, evidence supports the use of complex text in preparing students for college and careers (e.g., Council of Chief State School Officers, 2017). However, engaging our learners in grade level complex science texts can be an extremely difficult task and, as a result, avoided in our instruction (Fisher & Frey, 2014; Amendum Conradi, & Hiebert, 2018). Grade level complex science texts can present significant barriers for many learners, especially students with disabilities. For example, science texts often use technical and unfamiliar vocabulary, lack elaboration through examples, can be conceptually dense and contain abstract ideas, and involve unfamiliar text structures different from those seen in narrative or... One approach to addressing barriers that grade level complex science text may present is via the use of a STEM multimodal text set -- a collection of resources from different genres, media, and levels...

There are many ways of organizing a multimodal text set. For our teacher professional development program, Linking Science and Literacy for All Learners, the line of inquiry of a text set is organized around an anchor text. Subsidiary texts, materials and resources, what we call content scaffolds, are organized around the line of inquiry and are designed to support the learner in developing the necessary content and skills and practices for... Organization of a multimodal, STEM text set. Listen to the interview with Brian Sztabnik and Susan Barber (transcript): Sponsored by Listenwise and Solution Tree

This page contains Bookshop.org links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. What’s the difference between Amazon and Bookshop.org? So much of the work we do in school involves reading and interacting with texts: books, stories, articles, poems, and textbooks make up a huge part of how we get information into students’ heads. This is especially true in English language arts classes, where literature has always been a staple of course content. And sometimes, in some classes, with some students … it can get pretty boring.

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